Recovery

President Obama likes to talk about income inequality, but what matters far more is the actual income of the typical American. And how has the typical American household income fared on Obama's watch? Well, the economic "recovery" has now spanned an Olympiad, and during that time the typical American household income has not only dropped—it has dropped more than twice as much as it did during the recession.

“Well, we’ve gone through a tough four years.” That line from Tuesday night’s presidential debate wasn’t particularly surprising. It was, after all, exactly what one would expect Mitt Romney to say about President Obama’s tenure in office. What was surprising was that it wasn’t Romney who uttered those words. It was Obama.

Americans must be wondering how much more of this “recovery” they can afford. New figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, compiled by Sentier Research, show that the typical American household’s real (inflation-adjusted) income has actually dropped 5.7 percent during the Obama “recovery.” Using constant 2012 dollars (to adjust for inflation), the median annual income of American households was $53,718 as of June 2009, the last month of the recession. Now, after 38 months of this “recovery,” it has fallen to $50,678 — a drop of $3,040 per household.

New evidence suggests there’s a reason why this economic “recovery” hasn’t felt much like a recovery. Figures from the Census Bureau’s Current Population Survey, compiled by Sentier Research, show that the “recovery” has actually been harder on most Americans than the recession from which they’ve allegedly been recovering.

What the rest of the country can learn from Texas.

'Recovery Summer.'

There is a very good reason why the White House – even with a generally complicit media – is having trouble persuading Americans that the stimulus spending is creating jobs: There seems to be an enormous disconnect between local economic development and creating net new jobs on a national basis.

Economic problems continue, but Americans remain optimistic.

We Americans needed this weekend, with something to celebrate -- our independence from overseas oppressors. Indeed, the Tea Party movement is attempting to recapture the attitude of our nation’s founders toward overweening government, in this case our own.

But will his efforts be successful?

President Obama is a busy man. What with having to persuade the United Nations Security Council to pass the latest and toothless sanctions on Iran, excoriating oil companies for the Gulf Oil spill, pushing a financial reform bill through congress, and attacking the state of Arizona for enacting a law to stem the tide of illegal immigrants, something his administration refuses to do, you would think he has no time to take on the troubles of euroland.

We might have to wait until after election day to find out.

We are all Greeks now. Or so it would seem if we are guided by the gyrations of share prices. Or if we believe that today’s Greece is tomorrow’s United States. After all, we are running Grecian-style deficits, our debt-to-GDP ratio is approaching the magic 90 percent mark that stifles growth and makes it more difficult to bring the budget deficit under control, and the effective U.S. tax rate on new corporate investment is estimated by economists Duanjie Chen and Jack Mintz of the University of Calgary in Canada to be almost twice an 80-nation average. With no room to raise taxes, and no political will to cut outlays, it is not unreasonable to worry that America might decide to print money to pay off its creditors, triggering inflation. At a minimum, the Greek tragedy has focused attention on America’s river of red ink, even though the parallels are far from exact.

Around the world, conferences have convened. But will they be of any use?

Small groups, gathered in meeting rooms scattered around the world and focused on a single issue, can affect the way we live, at least now and perhaps for a long time. Consider only this week’s conclaves.

Here in Washington, the Federal Reserve Board’s monetary policy gurus met and decided to keep interest rates low until unemployment drops, even though they agreed that the economy is already improving. Meanwhile, meeting in committee rooms and in the corridors of power, Congress agreed to give the White House what its economists and the president, meeting in the Oval Office, demanded: more stimulus spending. It is true that there is considerable excess capacity in the economy, as the deflation-worriers continually point out. But anyone who believes that the meetings at the Fed, in congress, and in the White House are not laying the ground for future inflation carries a heavy burden of proof.

Here's the bad news: It says nothing of the long term recovery, and spending is out of control.

Barack Obama, or his successor, will have a lot to answer for when the bills come due for his spending spree. But for now, he is due some credit for helping the U.S. economy to get back on track, while the eurozone lags, and for the relatively strong performance of the dollar, while the euro weeps at the unfolding Greek tragedy.

A comprehensive alternative to Obama's economic plan.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn’t claim to have developed an economic stimulus plan of his own. But he does favor a cluster of proposals that, when packaged together, are a simple, sensible program for rejuvenating the economy.

I take the liberty of dubbing it the McConnell Plan (without asking the Republican leader’s approval). If enacted, the plan would do a great deal more to boost the economy and increase employment than the “jobs bill” that President Obama and congressional Democrats are cooking up.